Suzu has been working on all kinds of things in her training. It's less frustrating than hammering her head against the same wall of non-progress she has been for the past several months. But finally, she has returned to the two training regimines that have caused her so much trouble. One, she has been keeping up every day, the other, she has just sort of been stalling on continuing with as she tries to build up more stamina.

Improving her Chakra control is still a work in progress, but even incremental improvement is better than no progress. With the Shadow Clone technique, she still gets her Chakra wiped out pretty quickly when trying to practice it. She can only use it a few times per day without suffering massive exhaustion. She can push it a bit further if she has to, but that just leaves her too tired to work on it the next day.

So she has limited herself to three tries per day. No more until she fixes her Chakra control. When she has resolved that, she'll probably have an easier time. Right now, she is seated on a boulder out by the water falls. Actually, she's sitting on two boulders.

Because across the lake from her is a second Suzuha, in the same position. Both are meditating, eyes closed, with the original just trying to sustain a single Shadow Clone. She thinks she has the concentration part down. She can keep her clone going for hours as long as they're just sitting there.

But unlike with her Fire Clones, she can't control her Shadow Clone directly. She has to give her verbal commands. In some ways, that's alleviating some of the burden, because all she has to do is allow the Chakra to remain 'out on loan' with her Shadow Clone, instead of mentally sustaining it. But there's still a continuous drain on her resources.

So as the vapor cloud rising from the base of the water fall, where it's hitting the lake, drifts around both kunoichi, Suzu is starting to reach the point where she needs to recall her Shadow Clone before she uses so much Chakra that she encroaches on her second usage for the day.

Having been patrolling quite a bit, Hinotori was heading back into the forests, he was going home, but was coming acorss another river. Though as he does, he takes a very familiar path and as he does he moves through teh trees quietly. Noticing the flow fo the water, HInotori walks out into a clearing and sees two Suzuha's sitting. HInotori smiles and is enjoying the sight of his girlfriend.

Like Suzu, HInotori has been pushing hard to complete his training. There is still a block, a wall that he's hammering against, sometimes he's let that be seen by Suzu his girlfriend. Even with his skills, he has trouble, but he doesn't let it stop him to at least keep his other abilities up and going.

Hinotori doesn't speak, he just watches Suzu, seeing how long she's been able to keep her clone out. He's trained with her, though he will need to teach her how to use the clone which he feels she may already know how. He sighs a little and just keeps quiet waiting for Suzu to finish.

After a few minutes more, Suzuha opens her eyes and looks at a stop watch she had hidden in the palm of her hand. A gift from Aru, following their training together. She clicks the button to stop the timer. "Okay." she says.

Her Shadow Clone opens her eyes across the waterfall-fed pool from her. "That's it for now?" the other Suzu asks.

Suzu nods her head.

"Cancelling the jutsu then." the Shadow Clone says as she forms the hand seal for the Shadow Clone Technique, and dismisses it, vanishing in a burst of smoke.

The Chakra returns to Suzu, who then stands up from the damp, moss-ringed rock she was sitting on, taking the time to stretch out her muscles after sitting for so long. Arching her back, she turns her head towards Hinotori, apparently having senses his presence, or perhaps just the feeling of being watched. "Ah, Hinotori-kun. Did you need something, or were you just coming out here for your own reasons?"

It is good to see how far Suzu has come, Hinotori smiles as he watches her call off her clone. Knowing the rush of chakra back to her does catches you off guard sometimes. Still he walks out from where he was watching her. "I'm here for my own reasons and honestly i shouldn't need a reason to watch my girl." he smiles. Looking to the spot where her clone was, "Your getting better. Next we need to get the two of you fighting to see how long your able to hold the clone and use other techniques." he tells her.

Still he walks over to Suzu and as she finishes stretching, he wraps his arms about her hips and pulls her into a hug if she allows him that far. "Still, what else are you going to be working on or are you finished for the day?" he asks. A bit of mischievousness is in his eyes, the dark skinned Uchiha gives a little grin to her.

Suzu hmmms at Hinotori's words, not responding until he comes up behind her and puts his arms around her. She looks up at him over her shoulder thoughtfully, then raises a hand to poke at his cheek with one finger. "Save it for later. You'll distract me from my training." She then thinks about what the 'next step' in the training is. "I'd defer to your greater familiarity with the technique and the training method ordinarily, but I'm not sure how much benefit there would actually be in fighting my own Shadow Clone. Fighting someone with the same knowledge and capabilities as myself sounds neat in concept, but all it takes is one hit on the clone and the training is over. Further, most of the time I won't be fighting people with the same abilities as me. I'll be fighting a bunch of different opponents."

She takes Hinotori's arms and removes them from around herself, but as she steps out onto the lake's surface she allows her hand to linger on the Jounin's before her slender fingers slip away and break contact. "Learning how to use them effectively in battle is definitely the next step, but I can only make two more today without wiping out my Chakra, and if both I and my Shadow Clones are going to be using Chakra and Stamina in battle, that's going to reduce my endurance even more and impose a time limit."

After water walking across to the opposite side of the pool, she steps up onto the flat rock previously occupied by her Shadow Clone and turns to face Hinotori. "Until I can improve my base Chakra pool more, I can't afford to freely use Shadow Clones in battle. But if you'd like to volunteer to help me test the best methods of using them, that would probably be a more effective use of my time than spending my last two remaining uses for the day on meditation."

She puts her hands on her hips and asks, "Well, how about it?"

Hinotori feels Suzu's finger poke his cheek, he smiles at her though as she speaks he nods his head. "Honestly, you would be surprised at how well the training would help you." he says to her. He hugs Suzu and kisses her along her cheek. "The clones may have your skills and techniques, but the cool things about the Shadow Clones they think for themselves." he tells her. "They fight similar to you but will not attack how you would normally." Hinotori nods his head, "As for deferring to me, use your best judgement, I will help guide you, but you have to take the steps forward. Still I can show you how I use mine." Hinotori offers.

Watching Suzu walks to the lake and let go of him, he slowly follows behind her. Once she makes it to the lake and onto the water Hinotori stops at the edge of the lake just listening to her. He folds his arms up over his chest and uses his right hand to rub his chin. "It will wipe you, but you have to learn." he walks along the water as Suzu moves up onto the rock where her clone was. "You know I have your back, and don't need to ask." he says as he gestures at her. "I'm ready when you are, and if you only have a few more clones to use, well chakra to use the clones, surprise me." He gestures for Suzu to come, "And after this, I have some other training in mind." he winks.

Suzu frowns as Hinotori follows her across the water, missing the point of her putting distance between them. Starting the spar from point-blank range is pointless. She heaves a sigh and rubs her forehead. "How would my Shadow Clones fight differently from me? They only have my memories and personality. Unless I know how to fight like someone else, they'd have no style but what I myself can use. And even then, we'd still have the same capabilities, so it'd still be the same. I know they can think independently, but they're still ME. Anything they can think of, I'd also be able to think of." She folds her arms under her chest and looks at Hinotori from her perch thoughtfully as she tries to figure it out.

"It really just doesn't make any sense. You'll have to explain it to me sometime. I'm still not as smart as my mother, or as experienced as you." She shakes her head, causing her huge mane of spiked black hair to swish back and forth. "I'm willing to try it and see what happens. But for now, a brief skirmish should do."

She then focuses on Hinotori and says, "And you might want to move back to the other side of the pool, on the rock I started from." She forms a focusing seal and begins to mold some Chakra in preparation.

Seeing the frown on her face, Hinotori is already walking back to the shore. She has a point and honestly he closes his eyes and sighs a little, more to himself as he listens. "Your right, but still training with your clones can help a degree. You will continue to spar with me, your mom, and other members of your team and I will say focus on one clone at a time when you use it, than as you build up your skill, bring in additional clones." he states.

He's on the shore and looking towards Suzu, "Your mom is damn smart, granted I wish I was a bit smarter, seems I'm able to grasp some things and not others." he shrugs a little, "Anyways come at me, I'm always the one rushing in." Hinotori looks around him, but doesn't move into a fighting stance at all…..well not yet anyways. As Suzu begins focusing chakra, he gets himself ready.

Suzuha acknowledgs there may be benefits to sparring with her Shadow Clone. It just seems like the experience would have limited applicability to actual combat with others. Unless she's training to fight other Uchiha with the same general capabilities, the long-term benefits just don't seem comparable. But Hinotori does know more about Shadow Clones than she does.

She silently resolves to listen to him more and not argue as much with everything he says. He's her teacher, her senior, and her superior. Giving it a shot before deciding it won't work is the least she can do when he's taking the time out to instruct her in such a complex and valuable technique.

That being said, she already has some ideas about how to effectively use Shadow Clones in mind. The advice to keep it to one clone at a time for now is good advice. With only two clones remaining to her for the day, by her own 'self-rule', she needs to deploy them strategically, to counter her opponent or to guarantee a successful hit, not just throw a bunch of bodies at the target.

That being said… She switches hand seals, flashing through a familiar set, and then inhaling deeply before expelling a large fireball directly into the water between her and her sparring partner.

There is an eruption of steam, creating a cloud of vapor that hides each ninja from the view of the other. When fighting a Sharingan user, robbing one's opponent of sight is a potent opening gambit, due to denying them access to many of their most vaunted abilities. Hypnotism, movement prediction, Chakra-reading… None of those matter if the Sharingan-wielder can't see.

Of course, Suzuha is in the same boat. But she wouldn't have made such a first move if she wasn't aware of that fact and prepared to capitalize on it.

The sound of feet splashing on the water rapidly may reach Hinotori's ears, as Suzu rushes him through the steam cloud. In moments, Suzu is leaping at her target, relying on her other senses and her last known awareness of the Jounin, to engage in a mid-air knee attack aimed at Hinotori's face.

She's just a shadowy silhouette at most in this steam, even if he were to use his Sharingan, but he's probably the same to her as well.

Hinotori does have some good insight when it comes to training, not all the time, still he's taught quite a few people giving the fact of his age. He lets out a breath and as he looks up at Suzu and she changes the seals she was forming. The fireball she fires into the lake surprises him. He smiles when he sees all the steam which pretty much is used to rob them of their sense if using the Sharingan. Hinotori wasn't going to use it, another part of his training was getting back to some of his basics that he started with, which was fighting without it and beating others who had eye dojutsus like the Sharingan and Byukugan. It's been a long while but he is up for it.

Hearing the splashing of water, like someone is running, the dark skinned Uchiha prepared, slowing his breathing, and as he does he attempts to find where Suzuha may be coming from. With all of this steam it would be really hard to judge which why this was an ideal move on her part. She has a good mind, something HInotori has come to value, not only is she beautiful, but has been growing in strength, which is a big turn on to him which she may have seen, including her mother.

Hinotori stands where he is and as Suzu jumps up he sees the shadow, again his Sharingan isn't activated at all, and as Suzu comes in, he moves to his left. Spinning away from the knee strike that would've took his face off, as he spins, he throws his right foot out in a high spin kick to towards the back of her head.

Landing where Hinotori just turned away from after missing her attack, Suzuha has little time to react to a kick from behind. But she too is trying to keep aware of her surroundings without relying on her eyes. She is nowhere near as adept as Hinotori at that, and it shows by attempt to duck under his kick not quite working. His foot lands against the back of her head… Or maybe it doesn't. It depends on if he pulls his foot up short in time or not because spikes of Chakra-hardened hair are what wait to greet him as his leg swings towards them.

He might be able to deal with this counter attack in many ways, but it seems that Suzu is using some strange new jutsu to guard her back, where her Sharingan wouldn't benefit her anyway. Maybe it's tied to how her hair grew out so quickly after that mission to deal with the bandits from the Land of Bears.

This may be interesting, but it's not the Shadow Clone training that this spar was supposed to be about. Then again, she may just be waiting for the right moment.

The older Uchiha stops his leg as he nears the back of her head, he could feel the tip of one of her spikes and hops back but as he does he drops down in a smooth motion. Hinotori spins on the ball of his left foot as he spins on his left. What he doesn't know, the spikes from Suzu's hair cut into his leg. Hinotori's movements are fast, he's a jounin for a reason which he demonstrates now as he shifts from the sweep, he lunges with a palm strike towards the middle of Suzu's chest. At the same time his left hand moves through seals quickly and as he looks to be ready gather air and blow out a gout of flame, but instead an intense heat expels from him.

Suzu turns as she realizes she didn't quite succeed in her surprise counter, but she turns directly into a palm strike against her armored chest, sending her skidding back and away from the waterfall-fed lake. However, as a result, she has all the range she needs despite the powerful impact to avoid the wave of heat. Of course, she didn't know it would just be a wave of heat when she went through so much trouble to dodge it, and feels a bit dumb for not recognizing the difference given it was the first Fire Style jutsu she learned.

She seemingly recklessly charges back towards the lake, even though she is now charging into the dissipating steam cloud that is growing thinner and thinner. It didn't seem to be impacting Hinotori's combat awareness much anyway.

…Or was it? Suddenly a second set of splashes on the water hurriedly comes up from behind Hinotori, as a second Suzuha seeks to charge up to him, drop, and send a kick aimed up at the Jounin's chin, using Shadow of the Dancing Leaf to try to send him into the air!

Successful or not, the distraction posed by the first Suzu as she works against the pain in her ribs and the difficulty she's having breathing after that impact to her sternum might have been enough to draw Hino's attention to the second Suzuha… And from there… The first Suzuha draws in what breath she can and expels a Great Fireball in a large sphere, heedless of the fact that her clone is in the way. After all, the clone isn't a real person and has a limited lifespan. Sacrificing it to lock down an opponent makes perfect sense.

But will it work?

Hinotori has had experience fighting without his senses before, it was hard but he was able to do it. Granted it's been a while since he's done this so for the most part some of this is experience and others it's been skill. Still some of this is luck, the hit he struck Suzu with connects. Looking to her and watching her movements, well not looking at her, he could hear the splashing of water, the steam is thinning and she is moving back to the lake.

Hinotori is about to move towards the lake, but he stops and spins around and brings his arms out in front of him as the kick lifts Hinotori up into the sky. He took a big part of the brunt of the damage. He grunts, he allowed himself to be distracted and as he is kicked high into the air, he spins in mid-air. What she doesn't see as the fireball races down towards him. An explosion happens in mid-air which it would take out Hino and her clone. But what happens below is a splash and, than more splashing as two shadows race towards where Suzu is at.

If Hinotori is thinking at all instead of just reacting on instinct and training, he may realize that Suzuha had already created her clone 'back then'. Cue flashback to when she blew fire into the water to make the steam, and then charged out to meet him. She used the cover of the steam not just to mask her approach when she was attacking personally, but also to hide the fact that she had already deployed one of her Shadow Clones.

But something about that isn't exactly accurate, even if he's taken the time to think about the sequence of events. Because as his own clone erupts in flames and takes out the Suzu clone… That clone doesn't vanish in smoke. It vanishes in flames.

That clone was ALSO a Fire Clone, not a Shadow Clone! Which means, as the steam dissipates more and more, barely concealing the two silhouettes that race towards Suzuha after her Great Fireball Technique only consumed a Fire Clone…

That she still hasn't use either of her Shadow Clone allotments?

Or maybe…

Light suddenly shines from beneath the lake's surface. And then eruptions of steam and flame come tearing upwards in the form of huge dragon-shaped fireballs. The Great Dragon Fire attacks tear up from within the lake, headed for the sky, and likely incinerating or at least doing heavy damage to anything caught in them.

It seems that the sequence of events is that she created her Shadow Clone after making the steam cloud, then had her Shadow Clone create a Fire Clone, which then attacked Hinotori's own Fire Clone from behind after their clash.

Meanwhile, the Shadow Clone slipped into the lake during the commotion, swam underneath, and waited for the steam to clear enough to start shooting upwards at any targets on the surface.

…It's probably safe to say that Suzu is on the right track to figuring out the best usage of her Shadow Clones in combat. Of course, repeat-firing of a B-Rank Ninjutsu of that scale, on top of a Fire Clone, is a bit much for a single Shadow Clone's Chakra supply, so whether it succeeds or not, Shadow Clone Suzu vanishes in a puff of smoke after exposure to the boiling lake surface, leaving the real Suzu stopped on the shore, waiting to see the results.

She maaaay have gone a little bit too hard for a spar, but Hinotori is really, really strong. She doubts she can seriously hurt him unless he allows her to. Even in that spar where they both got messed up, it was because he wasn't using his Sharingan or his strongest moves against her.

So all she can do right now is wait and see whether she passed her teacher's test of using this technique in battle.

Hinotori has been paying attention, but even still with all thats going on, he's been kept on his toes. He's amazed at how Suzu is able to use her surroundings for her benefit, which shows how well and far she has come. HInotori sees that his fire clone goes up in flames but also taking one of Suzu's that attacked. Hinotori does notice that the clone that hit him went up like a Fire Clone as well. This was becoming pretty fun, but than again he's always enjoyed sparring. Watching the clones go up in flames, he smirks a little bit, but it's not until he notices that there is something bright coming up from under the water. "What the…" he looks from where he is and his eyes go WIDE! As the Flaming Dragons come roaring up, he gasps. He only has moments to escape, one of the shadows runs from where the Flaming Drgaon Heads are coming from, the clone vanishes in smoke, must've been a Shadow Clone still the B-Rank skill does what it was needed to do and Hinotori is sent skidding across the lake and he rolls and comes up on his knees.

Slowly getting up, he laughs, "Alrgith, this one is yours Suzu!" he calls out to her. Hinotori is a bit smokey and he's looking a bit disheveled, but otherwise in good shape for the most part. He was impressed with what she did and how she effectively used her Shadow Clone.

Suzu actually doubts Hinotori at first when he remarks on her 'winning' or 'passing' or whatever. She is breathing a little bit heavily, and poking at her sore chest and ribs a bit when she realizes he's not giving any indication of continuing the fight. And he's not the type who would lie to her either.

Her visible eye widens as she asks, "What, seriously? That was good enough?" She doesn't think Hinotori was ACTUALLY in REAL danger from her, but… Concern washes over her features as she says, "I hope I didn't go too far. You're not injured, are you? I know that was a bit beyond the level of a simple spar, but…"

She starts making her way over to him, intent on inspecting her teacher for signs of injury.

Hinotori grins and watches as Suzu frets over the win. To him it was a win for Suzu, she pushed and din't let him dictate the fight, which means she will not allow her opponents dictate the fight even if they pick the battleground. He stays where he is and he is a little sore, but the injuries to himself aren't anywhere as near as bad as when he spared with her mother. But he wouldn't tell Suzu that, he's seen her surpass something he's been waiting on her to do.

As Suzu comes closer to him, he sits up and winces a little bit. "Suzu, I'm fine, really." he says as she gets closer, "Though honestly I want you to come here, I want to hold you." he says simply. He watches his girlfriend as she comes closer, but now she is his student, granted he didn't care how it looked.

Suzu frowns but comes over and sits next to Hinotori and leans against him once she's settled. She's quiet for awhile, and says, "I still have one last test to pass, I think, before I'm ready to call this jutsu part of my arsenal. I know how to use it in combat. Or at least I do now. But from what I heard from my mom, the purpose of the Shadow Clone is for reconnaisance. You send it out to to scout for you, gather intel, then return that information without risk to the original by just dismissing the jutsu. So I have to make sure I can use my Shadow Clones as effective scouting tools… Meaning stealth, information analysis, and so on."

She thinks about it and then says, "I think I have an idea in mind. I'll have to talk to Rinoko-chan about it." She closes her eyes, the smell of the waterfall and the wilderness clashing the scent of smoke and burnt hair. Inhaling makes her cough both from the pungentess of the smell and from the soreness in her ribs. When she gets her breath back, she says, "I think I'm going to have to hold off on any more strenuous 'training' today, sadly. I'm a bit worn out."

Then she gets up and kisses Hinotori on the cheek and says, "But I'll make it up to you when I've recovered." Then she leans closer and whispers into his ear, "Thank you for everything you've done for me." She then hugs his head, not as pleasant an experience with her in armor than if she weren't wearing it, and prepares to head home. She still needs to build up her stamina… She just gets tired out way too fast.

Studying Suzu as she talks to him, granted he was pretty happy she came to sit next to him. She is a hard one to get close to, but he's been happy how things worked out. Still as she speaks about the training, he gives her a slow nod. "We can work more on that." he says. "Next time, the spar will be different." he states to her. As she speaks about the other ways the clones can be used, he smiles. "Good." he says simply. "Tsugumi-chan is right." he tells her. "I want to see how you use them."

The smell really doesn't bother him, he's used to smelling fire and burnt…..well anything. When you incorporate fire into your taijutsu or create new techniques, you get burned a lot. He stretches and brings an arm around Suzu's waist as they sit together. Though as she kisses him, he smiles to her as she gets up and hugs him. "I think I like the other outfit better." he says as he pokes her chest armor. He gets up himself, but before she can go anywhere he pulls her into a hug and brings his right hand up to her cheek. "You better Suzuha-chan." he says as he looks her in the eyes. The way he looks in her eyes shows how much he cares for her. "Your welcome, I will do all that I can to help train you, but even more so, I will do all I can to have your back." he states. "Your strong, and growing in your abilities, trust in yourself but also in us as well." and whenhe says us, he's talking about him and her. He leans in and kisses her lips, there is strength there. After a long moment, he breaks the kiss. "Wantme to walk you home?"

Suzu shakes her head after they're separated. "No. I'm not going directly home. Thanks for the offer. But there's a couple other places I have to go first." First the hospital, and then… The village graveyard. She wants to have a heart to heart with her father. To show him how much she has grown, and to repeat the promise she made to be stronger next time. So she would never lose anyone important to her ever again.

That's what this jutsu was for, after all. So she can protect everyone at once.

And now that she's so close to mastering it, she wants to make sure that, wherever he is now, he knows she hasn't forgotten. She has spent too much time apologizing in front of his grave already. Now it's time for her to tell him how she's moving forward.

She smiles, despite there being a slightly distant and sad look to her eyes. Her tone is playful as she says, "I'll find you later, okay, sensei~?"

But as she turns away, and starts walking, her back to Hinotori, her expression and her Chakra become much colder.

Suzu has been working on all kinds of things in her training. It's less frustrating than hammering her head against the same wall of non-progress she has been for the past several months. But finally, she has returned to the two training regimines that have caused her so much trouble. One, she has been keeping up every day, the other, she has just sort of been stalling on continuing with as she tries to build up more stamina.

Improving her Chakra control is still a work in progress, but even incremental improvement is better than no progress. With the Shadow Clone technique, she still gets her Chakra wiped out pretty quickly when trying to practice it. She can only use it a few times per day without suffering massive exhaustion. She can push it a bit further if she has to, but that just leaves her too tired to work on it the next day.

So she has limited herself to three tries per day. No more until she fixes her Chakra control. When she has resolved that, she'll probably have an easier time. Right now, she is seated on a boulder out by the water falls. Actually, she's sitting on two boulders.

Because across the lake from her is a second Suzuha, in the same position. Both are meditating, eyes closed, with the original just trying to sustain a single Shadow Clone. She thinks she has the concentration part down. She can keep her clone going for hours as long as they're just sitting there.

But unlike with her Fire Clones, she can't control her Shadow Clone directly. She has to give her verbal commands. In some ways, that's alleviating some of the burden, because all she has to do is allow the Chakra to remain 'out on loan' with her Shadow Clone, instead of mentally sustaining it. But there's still a continuous drain on her resources.

So as the vapor cloud rising from the base of the water fall, where it's hitting the lake, drifts around both kunoichi, Suzu is starting to reach the point where she needs to recall her Shadow Clone before she uses so much Chakra that she encroaches on her second usage for the day.

Having been patrolling quite a bit, Hinotori was heading back into the forests, he was going home, but was coming acorss another river. Though as he does, he takes a very familiar path and as he does he moves through teh trees quietly. Noticing the flow fo the water, HInotori walks out into a clearing and sees two Suzuha's sitting. HInotori smiles and is enjoying the sight of his girlfriend.

Like Suzu, HInotori has been pushing hard to complete his training. There is still a block, a wall that he's hammering against, sometimes he's let that be seen by Suzu his girlfriend. Even with his skills, he has trouble, but he doesn't let it stop him to at least keep his other abilities up and going.

Hinotori doesn't speak, he just watches Suzu, seeing how long she's been able to keep her clone out. He's trained with her, though he will need to teach her how to use the clone which he feels she may already know how. He sighs a little and just keeps quiet waiting for Suzu to finish.

After a few minutes more, Suzuha opens her eyes and looks at a stop watch she had hidden in the palm of her hand. A gift from Aru, following their training together. She clicks the button to stop the timer. "Okay." she says.

Her Shadow Clone opens her eyes across the waterfall-fed pool from her. "That's it for now?" the other Suzu asks.

Suzu nods her head.

"Cancelling the jutsu then." the Shadow Clone says as she forms the hand seal for the Shadow Clone Technique, and dismisses it, vanishing in a burst of smoke.

The Chakra returns to Suzu, who then stands up from the damp, moss-ringed rock she was sitting on, taking the time to stretch out her muscles after sitting for so long. Arching her back, she turns her head towards Hinotori, apparently having senses his presence, or perhaps just the feeling of being watched. "Ah, Hinotori-kun. Did you need something, or were you just coming out here for your own reasons?"

It is good to see how far Suzu has come, Hinotori smiles as he watches her call off her clone. Knowing the rush of chakra back to her does catches you off guard sometimes. Still he walks out from where he was watching her. "I'm here for my own reasons and honestly i shouldn't need a reason to watch my girl." he smiles. Looking to the spot where her clone was, "Your getting better. Next we need to get the two of you fighting to see how long your able to hold the clone and use other techniques." he tells her.

Still he walks over to Suzu and as she finishes stretching, he wraps his arms about her hips and pulls her into a hug if she allows him that far. "Still, what else are you going to be working on or are you finished for the day?" he asks. A bit of mischievousness is in his eyes, the dark skinned Uchiha gives a little grin to her.

Suzu hmmms at Hinotori's words, not responding until he comes up behind her and puts his arms around her. She looks up at him over her shoulder thoughtfully, then raises a hand to poke at his cheek with one finger. "Save it for later. You'll distract me from my training." She then thinks about what the 'next step' in the training is. "I'd defer to your greater familiarity with the technique and the training method ordinarily, but I'm not sure how much benefit there would actually be in fighting my own Shadow Clone. Fighting someone with the same knowledge and capabilities as myself sounds neat in concept, but all it takes is one hit on the clone and the training is over. Further, most of the time I won't be fighting people with the same abilities as me. I'll be fighting a bunch of different opponents."

She takes Hinotori's arms and removes them from around herself, but as she steps out onto the lake's surface she allows her hand to linger on the Jounin's before her slender fingers slip away and break contact. "Learning how to use them effectively in battle is definitely the next step, but I can only make two more today without wiping out my Chakra, and if both I and my Shadow Clones are going to be using Chakra and Stamina in battle, that's going to reduce my endurance even more and impose a time limit."

After water walking across to the opposite side of the pool, she steps up onto the flat rock previously occupied by her Shadow Clone and turns to face Hinotori. "Until I can improve my base Chakra pool more, I can't afford to freely use Shadow Clones in battle. But if you'd like to volunteer to help me test the best methods of using them, that would probably be a more effective use of my time than spending my last two remaining uses for the day on meditation."

She puts her hands on her hips and asks, "Well, how about it?"

Hinotori feels Suzu's finger poke his cheek, he smiles at her though as she speaks he nods his head. "Honestly, you would be surprised at how well the training would help you." he says to her. He hugs Suzu and kisses her along her cheek. "The clones may have your skills and techniques, but the cool things about the Shadow Clones they think for themselves." he tells her. "They fight similar to you but will not attack how you would normally." Hinotori nods his head, "As for deferring to me, use your best judgement, I will help guide you, but you have to take the steps forward. Still I can show you how I use mine." Hinotori offers.

Watching Suzu walks to the lake and let go of him, he slowly follows behind her. Once she makes it to the lake and onto the water Hinotori stops at the edge of the lake just listening to her. He folds his arms up over his chest and uses his right hand to rub his chin. "It will wipe you, but you have to learn." he walks along the water as Suzu moves up onto the rock where her clone was. "You know I have your back, and don't need to ask." he says as he gestures at her. "I'm ready when you are, and if you only have a few more clones to use, well chakra to use the clones, surprise me." He gestures for Suzu to come, "And after this, I have some other training in mind." he winks.

Suzu frowns as Hinotori follows her across the water, missing the point of her putting distance between them. Starting the spar from point-blank range is pointless. She heaves a sigh and rubs her forehead. "How would my Shadow Clones fight differently from me? They only have my memories and personality. Unless I know how to fight like someone else, they'd have no style but what I myself can use. And even then, we'd still have the same capabilities, so it'd still be the same. I know they can think independently, but they're still ME. Anything they can think of, I'd also be able to think of." She folds her arms under her chest and looks at Hinotori from her perch thoughtfully as she tries to figure it out.

"It really just doesn't make any sense. You'll have to explain it to me sometime. I'm still not as smart as my mother, or as experienced as you." She shakes her head, causing her huge mane of spiked black hair to swish back and forth. "I'm willing to try it and see what happens. But for now, a brief skirmish should do."

She then focuses on Hinotori and says, "And you might want to move back to the other side of the pool, on the rock I started from." She forms a focusing seal and begins to mold some Chakra in preparation.

Seeing the frown on her face, Hinotori is already walking back to the shore. She has a point and honestly he closes his eyes and sighs a little, more to himself as he listens. "Your right, but still training with your clones can help a degree. You will continue to spar with me, your mom, and other members of your team and I will say focus on one clone at a time when you use it, than as you build up your skill, bring in additional clones." he states.

He's on the shore and looking towards Suzu, "Your mom is **** smart, granted I wish I was a bit smarter, seems I'm able to grasp some things and not others." he shrugs a little, "Anyways come at me, I'm always the one rushing in." Hinotori looks around him, but doesn't move into a fighting stance at all…..well not yet anyways. As Suzu begins focusing chakra, he gets himself ready.

Suzuha acknowledgs there may be benefits to sparring with her Shadow Clone. It just seems like the experience would have limited applicability to actual combat with others. Unless she's training to fight other Uchiha with the same general capabilities, the long-term benefits just don't seem comparable. But Hinotori does know more about Shadow Clones than she does.

She silently resolves to listen to him more and not argue as much with everything he says. He's her teacher, her senior, and her superior. Giving it a shot before deciding it won't work is the least she can do when he's taking the time out to instruct her in such a complex and valuable technique.

That being said, she already has some ideas about how to effectively use Shadow Clones in mind. The advice to keep it to one clone at a time for now is good advice. With only two clones remaining to her for the day, by her own 'self-rule', she needs to deploy them strategically, to counter her opponent or to guarantee a successful hit, not just throw a bunch of bodies at the target.

That being said… She switches hand seals, flashing through a familiar set, and then inhaling deeply before expelling a large fireball directly into the water between her and her sparring partner.

There is an eruption of steam, creating a cloud of vapor that hides each ninja from the view of the other. When fighting a Sharingan user, robbing one's opponent of sight is a potent opening gambit, due to denying them access to many of their most vaunted abilities. Hypnotism, movement prediction, Chakra-reading… None of those matter if the Sharingan-wielder can't see.

Of course, Suzuha is in the same boat. But she wouldn't have made such a first move if she wasn't aware of that fact and prepared to capitalize on it.

The sound of feet splashing on the water rapidly may reach Hinotori's ears, as Suzu rushes him through the steam cloud. In moments, Suzu is leaping at her target, relying on her other senses and her last known awareness of the Jounin, to engage in a mid-air knee attack aimed at Hinotori's face.

She's just a shadowy silhouette at most in this steam, even if he were to use his Sharingan, but he's probably the same to her as well.

Hinotori does have some good insight when it comes to training, not all the time, still he's taught quite a few people giving the fact of his age. He lets out a breath and as he looks up at Suzu and she changes the seals she was forming. The fireball she fires into the lake surprises him. He smiles when he sees all the steam which pretty much is used to rob them of their sense if using the Sharingan. Hinotori wasn't going to use it, another part of his training was getting back to some of his basics that he started with, which was fighting without it and beating others who had eye dojutsus like the Sharingan and Byukugan. It's been a long while but he is up for it.

Hearing the splashing of water, like someone is running, the dark skinned Uchiha prepared, slowing his breathing, and as he does he attempts to find where Suzuha may be coming from. With all of this steam it would be really hard to judge which why this was an ideal move on her part. She has a good mind, something HInotori has come to value, not only is she beautiful, but has been growing in strength, which is a big turn on to him which she may have seen, including her mother.

Hinotori stands where he is and as Suzu jumps up he sees the shadow, again his Sharingan isn't activated at all, and as Suzu comes in, he moves to his left. Spinning away from the knee strike that would've took his face off, as he spins, he throws his right foot out in a high spin kick to towards the back of her head.

Landing where Hinotori just turned away from after missing her attack, Suzuha has little time to react to a kick from behind. But she too is trying to keep aware of her surroundings without relying on her eyes. She is nowhere near as adept as Hinotori at that, and it shows by attempt to duck under his kick not quite working. His foot lands against the back of her head… Or maybe it doesn't. It depends on if he pulls his foot up short in time or not because spikes of Chakra-hardened hair are what wait to greet him as his leg swings towards them.

He might be able to deal with this counter attack in many ways, but it seems that Suzu is using some strange new jutsu to guard her back, where her Sharingan wouldn't benefit her anyway. Maybe it's tied to how her hair grew out so quickly after that mission to deal with the bandits from the Land of Bears.

This may be interesting, but it's not the Shadow Clone training that this spar was supposed to be about. Then again, she may just be waiting for the right moment.

The older Uchiha stops his leg as he nears the back of her head, he could feel the tip of one of her spikes and hops back but as he does he drops down in a smooth motion. Hinotori spins on the ball of his left foot as he spins on his left. What he doesn't know, the spikes from Suzu's hair cut into his leg. Hinotori's movements are fast, he's a jounin for a reason which he demonstrates now as he shifts from the sweep, he lunges with a palm strike towards the middle of Suzu's chest. At the same time his left hand moves through seals quickly and as he looks to be ready gather air and blow out a gout of flame, but instead an intense heat expels from him.

Suzu turns as she realizes she didn't quite succeed in her surprise counter, but she turns directly into a palm strike against her armored chest, sending her skidding back and away from the waterfall-fed lake. However, as a result, she has all the range she needs despite the powerful impact to avoid the wave of heat. Of course, she didn't know it would just be a wave of heat when she went through so much trouble to dodge it, and feels a bit dumb for not recognizing the difference given it was the first Fire Style jutsu she learned.

She seemingly recklessly charges back towards the lake, even though she is now charging into the dissipating steam cloud that is growing thinner and thinner. It didn't seem to be impacting Hinotori's combat awareness much anyway.

…Or was it? Suddenly a second set of splashes on the water hurriedly comes up from behind Hinotori, as a second Suzuha seeks to charge up to him, drop, and send a kick aimed up at the Jounin's chin, using Shadow of the Dancing Leaf to try to send him into the air!

Successful or not, the distraction posed by the first Suzu as she works against the pain in her ribs and the difficulty she's having breathing after that impact to her sternum might have been enough to draw Hino's attention to the second Suzuha… And from there… The first Suzuha draws in what breath she can and expels a Great Fireball in a large sphere, heedless of the fact that her clone is in the way. After all, the clone isn't a real person and has a limited lifespan. Sacrificing it to lock down an opponent makes perfect sense.

But will it work?

Hinotori has had experience fighting without his senses before, it was hard but he was able to do it. Granted it's been a while since he's done this so for the most part some of this is experience and others it's been skill. Still some of this is luck, the hit he struck Suzu with connects. Looking to her and watching her movements, well not looking at her, he could hear the splashing of water, the steam is thinning and she is moving back to the lake.

Hinotori is about to move towards the lake, but he stops and spins around and brings his arms out in front of him as the kick lifts Hinotori up into the sky. He took a big part of the brunt of the damage. He grunts, he allowed himself to be distracted and as he is kicked high into the air, he spins in mid-air. What she doesn't see as the fireball races down towards him. An explosion happens in mid-air which it would take out Hino and her clone. But what happens below is a splash and, than more splashing as two shadows race towards where Suzu is at.

If Hinotori is thinking at all instead of just reacting on instinct and training, he may realize that Suzuha had already created her clone 'back then'. Cue flashback to when she blew fire into the water to make the steam, and then charged out to meet him. She used the cover of the steam not just to mask her approach when she was attacking personally, but also to hide the fact that she had already deployed one of her Shadow Clones.

But something about that isn't exactly accurate, even if he's taken the time to think about the sequence of events. Because as his own clone erupts in flames and takes out the Suzu clone… That clone doesn't vanish in smoke. It vanishes in flames.

That clone was ALSO a Fire Clone, not a Shadow Clone! Which means, as the steam dissipates more and more, barely concealing the two silhouettes that race towards Suzuha after her Great Fireball Technique only consumed a Fire Clone…

That she still hasn't use either of her Shadow Clone allotments?

Or maybe…

Light suddenly shines from beneath the lake's surface. And then eruptions of steam and flame come tearing upwards in the form of huge dragon-shaped fireballs. The Great Dragon Fire attacks tear up from within the lake, headed for the sky, and likely incinerating or at least doing heavy damage to anything caught in them.

It seems that the sequence of events is that she created her Shadow Clone after making the steam cloud, then had her Shadow Clone create a Fire Clone, which then attacked Hinotori's own Fire Clone from behind after their clash.

Meanwhile, the Shadow Clone slipped into the lake during the commotion, swam underneath, and waited for the steam to clear enough to start shooting upwards at any targets on the surface.

…It's probably safe to say that Suzu is on the right track to figuring out the best usage of her Shadow Clones in combat. Of course, repeat-firing of a B-Rank Ninjutsu of that scale, on top of a Fire Clone, is a bit much for a single Shadow Clone's Chakra supply, so whether it succeeds or not, Shadow Clone Suzu vanishes in a puff of smoke after exposure to the boiling lake surface, leaving the real Suzu stopped on the shore, waiting to see the results.

She maaaay have gone a little bit too hard for a spar, but Hinotori is really, really strong. She doubts she can seriously hurt him unless he allows her to. Even in that spar where they both got messed up, it was because he wasn't using his Sharingan or his strongest moves against her.

So all she can do right now is wait and see whether she passed her teacher's test of using this technique in battle.

Hinotori has been paying attention, but even still with all thats going on, he's been kept on his toes. He's amazed at how Suzu is able to use her surroundings for her benefit, which shows how well and far she has come. HInotori sees that his fire clone goes up in flames but also taking one of Suzu's that attacked. Hinotori does notice that the clone that hit him went up like a Fire Clone as well. This was becoming pretty fun, but than again he's always enjoyed sparring. Watching the clones go up in flames, he smirks a little bit, but it's not until he notices that there is something bright coming up from under the water. "What the…" he looks from where he is and his eyes go WIDE! As the Flaming Dragons come roaring up, he gasps. He only has moments to escape, one of the shadows runs from where the Flaming Drgaon Heads are coming from, the clone vanishes in smoke, must've been a Shadow Clone still the B-Rank skill does what it was needed to do and Hinotori is sent skidding across the lake and he rolls and comes up on his knees.

Slowly getting up, he laughs, "Alrgith, this one is yours Suzu!" he calls out to her. Hinotori is a bit smokey and he's looking a bit disheveled, but otherwise in good shape for the most part. He was impressed with what she did and how she effectively used her Shadow Clone.

Suzu actually doubts Hinotori at first when he remarks on her 'winning' or 'passing' or whatever. She is breathing a little bit heavily, and poking at her sore chest and ribs a bit when she realizes he's not giving any indication of continuing the fight. And he's not the type who would lie to her either.

Her visible eye widens as she asks, "What, seriously? That was good enough?" She doesn't think Hinotori was ACTUALLY in REAL danger from her, but… Concern washes over her features as she says, "I hope I didn't go too far. You're not injured, are you? I know that was a bit beyond the level of a simple spar, but…"

She starts making her way over to him, intent on inspecting her teacher for signs of injury.

Hinotori grins and watches as Suzu frets over the win. To him it was a win for Suzu, she pushed and din't let him dictate the fight, which means she will not allow her opponents dictate the fight even if they pick the battleground. He stays where he is and he is a little sore, but the injuries to himself aren't anywhere as near as bad as when he spared with her mother. But he wouldn't tell Suzu that, he's seen her surpass something he's been waiting on her to do.

As Suzu comes closer to him, he sits up and winces a little bit. "Suzu, I'm fine, really." he says as she gets closer, "Though honestly I want you to come here, I want to hold you." he says simply. He watches his girlfriend as she comes closer, but now she is his student, granted he didn't care how it looked.

Suzu frowns but comes over and sits next to Hinotori and leans against him once she's settled. She's quiet for awhile, and says, "I still have one last test to pass, I think, before I'm ready to call this jutsu part of my arsenal. I know how to use it in combat. Or at least I do now. But from what I heard from my mom, the purpose of the Shadow Clone is for reconnaisance. You send it out to to scout for you, gather intel, then return that information without risk to the original by just dismissing the jutsu. So I have to make sure I can use my Shadow Clones as effective scouting tools… Meaning stealth, information analysis, and so on."

She thinks about it and then says, "I think I have an idea in mind. I'll have to talk to Rinoko-chan about it." She closes her eyes, the smell of the waterfall and the wilderness clashing the scent of smoke and burnt hair. Inhaling makes her cough both from the pungentess of the smell and from the soreness in her ribs. When she gets her breath back, she says, "I think I'm going to have to hold off on any more strenuous 'training' today, sadly. I'm a bit worn out."

Then she gets up and kisses Hinotori on the cheek and says, "But I'll make it up to you when I've recovered." Then she leans closer and whispers into his ear, "Thank you for everything you've done for me." She then hugs his head, not as pleasant an experience with her in armor than if she weren't wearing it, and prepares to head home. She still needs to build up her stamina… She just gets tired out way too fast.

Studying Suzu as she talks to him, granted he was pretty happy she came to sit next to him. She is a hard one to get close to, but he's been happy how things worked out. Still as she speaks about the training, he gives her a slow nod. "We can work more on that." he says. "Next time, the spar will be different." he states to her. As she speaks about the other ways the clones can be used, he smiles. "Good." he says simply. "Tsugumi-chan is right." he tells her. "I want to see how you use them."

The smell really doesn't bother him, he's used to smelling fire and burnt…..well anything. When you incorporate fire into your taijutsu or create new techniques, you get burned a lot. He stretches and brings an arm around Suzu's waist as they sit together. Though as she kisses him, he smiles to her as she gets up and hugs him. "I think I like the other outfit better." he says as he pokes her chest armor. He gets up himself, but before she can go anywhere he pulls her into a hug and brings his right hand up to her cheek. "You better Suzuha-chan." he says as he looks her in the eyes. The way he looks in her eyes shows how much he cares for her. "Your welcome, I will do all that I can to help train you, but even more so, I will do all I can to have your back." he states. "Your strong, and growing in your abilities, trust in yourself but also in us as well." and whenhe says us, he's talking about him and her. He leans in and kisses her lips, there is strength there. After a long moment, he breaks the kiss. "Wantme to walk you home?"

Suzu shakes her head after they're separated. "No. I'm not going directly home. Thanks for the offer. But there's a couple other places I have to go first." First the hospital, and then… The village graveyard. She wants to have a heart to heart with her father. To show him how much she has grown, and to repeat the promise she made to be stronger next time. So she would never lose anyone important to her ever again.

That's what this jutsu was for, after all. So she can protect everyone at once.

And now that she's so close to mastering it, she wants to make sure that, wherever he is now, he knows she hasn't forgotten. She has spent too much time apologizing in front of his grave already. Now it's time for her to tell him how she's moving forward.

She smiles, despite there being a slightly distant and sad look to her eyes. Her tone is playful as she says, "I'll find you later, okay, sensei~?"

But as she turns away, and starts walking, her back to Hinotori, her expression and her Chakra become much colder.